2016 marks a milestone anniversary for the great Renaissance humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus and for Queens’ College Cambridge.
500 years after the publication of his ground-breaking edition of the New Testament, some of it prepared during his three-year stay at Queens’, In Praise of Erasmus celebrated Erasmus’ achievements and the role of Queens’ and Cambridge in bringing them about.
We welcomed over 800 visitors to the exhibition. As well as being open to the public and College for seven weeks, we were open for Open Cambridge and the Festival of ideas. For the latter, we held an Erasmus Day comprising two talks on Erasmus by Dr Andrew Zurcher and Prof Richard Rex in the afternoon. We also held two public workshops on 16th century binding where people examined our fabulous 16th century Cambridge bindings and had a go at stitching, stamping and other binding tasks.
We have also welcomed some school visits, and of course alumni for Academic Saturday.
This exhibition was made possible thanks to generous project funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). The funding will allow us to catalogue and digitise key aspects of our exceptional Tudor-period library collection. Until 2018, a series of public exhibitions and community events will enable local people to see, understand and enjoy many of the previously unseen literary wonders held by the College.
Keep up with the library's activities.
